Arms out of post-Gaddafi Libya are empowering militant groups, including terrorists and criminal gangs across the Middle East and Africa, a UN report said. Twelve countries are involved in the illicit trade of weapons, including portable SAM missiles.

Eighteen months after the civilian conflict and NATO bombing
campaign ousted longtime Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, most of
the weapons in the country remain in control of civilians and
militias, according to a UN Security Council report. The
trafficking of those arms is both a lucrative business and a major
security threat to the entire region, the report revealed.

"In the past 12 months, the proliferation of weapons from
Libya has continued at a worrying rate and has spread into new
territory: West Africa, the Levant and, potentially, even the Horn
of Africa," the panel said. "Illicit flows from the country
are fueling existing conflicts in Africa and the Levant and
enriching the arsenals of a range of non-state actors, including
terrorist groups."

The recipients are empowered not only by the sheer number of new
arms in their possession, but also by new kinds of weapons.

"Cases, both proven and under investigation, of illicit
transfers from Libya in violation of the embargo cover more than 12
countries and include heavy and light weapons, including
man-portable air defense systems, small arms and related ammunition
and explosives and mines," experts wrote in the 94-page
report.

Proliferation of portable surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) has
long been deemed one of the most alarming consequences of the
turmoil in Libya, as such weapons may be used by terrorists to
shoot down civilian aircraft. Experts claim they have confidential
information that 30 SAMs have been trafficked from Libya to Chad’s
capital Ndjamena.

Egypt is facing the worst influx of Libyan arms, the report
says, with a large portion being directed to armed groups in the
Sinai; this poses a serious internal security threat for Cairo amid
its unending political turbulence.

Libyan arms in Egypt are then smuggled into the Hamas-controlled
Gaza Strip; militants there purchased modern assault rifles and
anti-tank weapons from Libya, the document warns.

Other trafficking destinations for these weapons include
Syria and Mali, both of which have witnessed violent conflict
and seen radical Islamist groups gain significant influence. Some
Libyan ammunition has been found in Somalia, where Islamist group
Al Shabab is rebelling against the weakened central government.

UN experts said that the arms trafficking had been organized
from various locations in Libya, including Misrata and Benghazi,
through Turkey or northern Lebanon: "The significant size of
some shipments and the logistics involved suggest that
representatives of the Libyan local authorities might have at least
been aware of the transfers, if not actually directly
involved."

The experts also said they found that Qatar and the United Arab
Emirates had violated the arms embargo on Libya during the 2011
conflict, supplying weapons and ammunition to anti-Gaddafi forces.
Qatar denied the accusation, while the UAE had not responded, the
report says. The transfers also involved Armenia, Albania and
Ukraine, according to the panel.

A separate embargo violation mentioned in the document was the
reported transfer of a drone to the rebels by a Canadian company.
The case is under investigation, Canadian authorities said.

Last month, the UN Security Council eased sanctions against
Libya to allow the supply of non-lethal military equipment,
including ballistic armor and armored vehicles to its government.
Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan’s cabinet is struggling to bring
the country under control, disarm local militias and provide some
degree of security to the population.

But large parts of the country remain unruly and refuse to take
orders from Tripoli. Tensions are high between coastal regions over
how profits from the country’s oil trade should be distributed,
while many areas inside the country are largely left to govern
themselves independently.